


Holding It In, Letting It Out

by thatluckyrabbit



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Disney Cartoons (Classic), Epic Mickey
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brother Feels, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mental Breakdown, My Own Disney AU, still adding to it and will continue to add to it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2015-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 08:57:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4781411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatluckyrabbit/pseuds/thatluckyrabbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a seemingly normal day, while spending time with his brother, Oswald suddenly breaks down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Holding It In, Letting It Out

**Author's Note:**

> So a lot of the fics i'll write about these two and Oswald and Ortensia will mostly be from this AU I have, where all the Disney toons co-exist with humans but also live in their own area/world at the same time. So I consider Walt the father of Oswald and Mickey, and it hurts me to think about what could have been for Oswald. 8'D So expect more angst about him because he's the most tragic character because what happened to him *really* happened, and that hurts me greatly to think about. :')

 

He didn't know what had happened or how, but he figured that it was bound to happen eventually.  
  
Oswald and Mickey had been joking around, smiling and laughing and just enjoying the time together as brothers now that they were finally able to be near one another after eighty years apart (one knowing about the other and the other never even knowing). Just having a good old "boys" day without their girls around. As simple as that.  
  
So Oswald could only wonder why he'd started to cry, randomly, while sitting on the couch in Mickey's living room. He'd been laughing at a particularly good joke on his end (what the joke was, he couldn't even remember now, his thoughts completely clouded) that brought on a hilariously sour look on his little brother's face when his laughs suddenly turned into sobs, tears springing to his eyes. Mickey just stared at him, wide eyed, unsure what to do and wondering just what had happened to his brother.  
  
And boy, Oswald knew that his brother had plenty of options to choose from in the _"why is Oswald upset this time"_ category: their father; his could have been future that was, instead, granted to his brother; eventually losing his wife as well (and only one of those things Oswald had been able to get back, the only thing his luck had managed to grant him after so many misfortunes and tragedies in his life). The icing on the cake was coming back home, finally, back to Disney where he'd always belonged, only to find out his father had been long dead... and that he'd never gotten to even say goodbye to him, let alone even see him again after being taken away from him.  
  
Whatever the first reason had been for why he'd started to randomly break down in his brother's living room, it was clearly gone now, replaced instead by a mixture of all the memories and old feelings of despair from the tragedies of his past. He'd spent far too long dwelling and remembering everything that had happened to him, realizing just how unlucky he had been, realizing he was destined to be nearly forgotten for almost a whole century... When he came back, he'd been able to push those negative thoughts and memories aside, knowing he had so much to be thankful for now that he was back home with his wife and their kids and his brother—back home like his father would have wanted. But the more time he got to spend with his brother, the more he realized just how much time they'd lost without even knowing. Despite knowing about his little brother, Oswald had spent eighty years hating him and being envious of his brother's happy, successful life while he rotted away, seemingly forever...  
  
What had happened was a whole new upsetting thought that had been presented to him, just prior while having a good time joking around with his brother, but it had been lingering there for months in his subconscious, pushed away until he'd reached his brink. One thought lead to another, and before he knew it, he saw himself and Mickey standing side by side in Steamboat Willie, and soon their faces, together, one by one, scattered over the Disney parks and on every single merchandise that was sold by the company...  
  
A life of happiness and success they could have had _together_. Being known world wide as "Walt's Boys", the mouse and the rabbit, the two Disney brothers, the famous two, making their father proud...  
  
~~**_Together._**~~  
  
"Oz...?" Mickey hesitantly reached out for his brother, not wanting to make his brother uncomfortable with any sudden comforting, physical affection that was clearly needed at the moment. Oswald rarely cried in front of him, save for a few times here and there, but nothing, _nothing,_ like this. Not practically shaking, hiccuping back sobs as big fat tears streamed down his face. If he were to be honest, the sight frightened him far more than it worried him, but he couldn't help but feel the tug of guilt in his chest when he wondered if he had done something to make his brother upset again, even if unintentionally. _It wouldn't be the first time I messed up and hurt him by accident.._. Such a selfish thought, he knew, but he really couldn't help it. The last thing he wanted was to hurt his brother again on accident. "What's wrong?"  
  
"A lot," Oswald choked out briefly, struggling to keep the sobs at bay. All those years of trying to keep it together, to not completely break down, had finally caught up to him (of course when he least expected it to). "...so, _so..._ m-much is wrong... or w-was, but..." He went to wipe at his eyes now, trying to wipe away the flowing tears, but no matter how many times he wiped at them with the back of his hand, the more tears that seemed to fall and replace those he'd wiped away.  
  
Mickey leaned in a little, arms out, hesitating but desperately wanting to pull his brother into a warm embrace. It's become a natural action for him now, to want to comfort his older brother. His brother had spent many years hurting on the inside, and he knew that now his brother had a physical heart again, he was even more fragile than ever. "But what, Ozzie?" Mickey asked, almost desperately. He wanted to know what was wrong so that he could help. "What happened?"  
  
Despite the deep ache he felt within his still fragile heart, Oswald gave a broken laugh, sobs quieting briefly. "...I used to h-hate you, Mick... I absolutely _hated_ your guts for as long as you've been around..." He swallowed hard, thick tears still falling freely on their own accord. "...a-and now here I am... crying on your damn cough because I suddenly saw us, side by side for the last eighty years..." He squeezed his eyes shut, looking away. "...almost as if... w-what happened to me never happened, like it was all some bad dream... that I was never taken away... that you and I got to grow up, and the world got to see it happen..."  
  
He bit his lip, another sob building in his throat as the words came out. Even saying them out loud hurt, because speaking about it only brought on more visions of a life that was never meant to be: growing up together as brothers, the way Walt had always intended... Somehow the 'what ifs' had started to hurt more than dwelling on what had actually happened to him (but then again, he'd spent the last eighty years already dwelling on all that).  
  
"I... just..." Oswald wanted to curl in on himself right then and there, his months old heart aching painfully in his chest. "...I wish we coulda grown up together... that the world could have seen us and... k-know that we're brothers..." Such a change to how his story had been before, despising the brother he'd grown to love. A brother he wished now that he'd been able to grow up and share memories with; to also share the fame that would have been his. Not that he wanted just the fame and recognition, but to share it with his brother—who he knew now and had known for quite some time rightfully deserved it.  
  
H used to despise it, but now he looked at Mickey's fame with pride. He'd taken the role of big brother fairly easily (perhaps from being a father early on in his life, or naturally being the oldest, he didn't know), and as such, he watched his brother with the same pride he was sure his father had felt for the mouse. But it still hurt at the same time, knowing that deep down no one had been proud of him (aside from Ortensia). He just wished that he could have made his father and the world as equally proud as his brother had, while standing right beside him rather than in the shadows.  
  
A life that could have been—the famous, talented brothers; _Walt's Boys_ —had Charles Mintz not ruined that dream.  
  
And as many people were kind enough to point out to Oswald: _"You should be proud—without you, Mickey never would have been made!"_ Which equated, in his mind, to—" _Had you not been taken by Universal, Mickey never would have existed!"_  
  
But Oswald disagreed with that. He _always_ had. One way or another Mickey would have come along as his brother. It would have been known, Mickey being introduced as "The Lucky Rabbit's Little Brother—Mickey Mouse"! And together they would have been equal: equally loved and known by all, making the world _—_ and their father _—_ proud.  
  
Something that was never meant to be.  
  
Just when he thought he'd gotten control over his tears, they started up again, quicker this time, his chest clenching painfully as the sobs tore from his throat once again. Maybe all this was from also not being able to properly mourn their father; or for not having any real closure on what had happened... or perhaps even from refraining to show Mickey just how broken and upset he still was deep down. He'd been good at pretending that he was perfectly okay now that he was back home, when really, he still had a lot do work on emotionally. It still hurt all the same, and pretending that he was fine somehow made it worse, and he knew that was what it was. Somehow he accidentally broke down in front of his brother, out of the blue, from realizing deep down that he couldn't hold it in any longer.  
  
And perhaps this was what he'd wanted all along (something to help soothe the pain and to let him know he wasn't being dramatic): Mickey reached over and pulled him into a tight, brotherly embrace, one that Oswald slowly returned back. He didn't realize that this was what he'd really wanted: a comforting hug from his other half. After all, Oswald and Mickey were a mirror of one another, and Walt created them both first. He'd been their creator, their mentor and most importantly their father. Not by blood, but by heart and soul, and that was where he would always be.  
  
As Oswald clung to Mickey, weeping in a way he hadn't done in such a long time, the mouse only held him tight, the same way Walt used to do for them both. "Dad would have wanted that to," Mickey said softly, resting his chin on Oswald's shoulder as the rabbit cried into his own. "I know I do..."  
  
_And it can still happen someday, Ozzie... I know it will. I'll make it happen._


End file.
